GLOBAL DIGNITY DAY CELEBRATES 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON PARLIAMENT HILL

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Ottawa, October 12, 2016 – Today, thousands of Canadian students and young leaders gathered in celebration of the international day to empower youth with dignity, Global Dignity Day. Joining 500,000 of their peers in more than 60 countries, students celebrated the tenth anniversary of Global Dignity Day internationally.

This year’s national event, hosted on Parliament Hill by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair, and sponsored by the Samuel Family Foundation, linked eight sites and two thousand students from Nunavut to Nova Scotia, with one international site, through a live videoconference.

The sites include: Parliament Hill in Ottawa; Queen Elizabeth High School in Edmonton, Alberta; Bimose Tribal Council in Kenora, Ontario; Jean Augustine Secondary School in Toronto, Ontario; John Analukjuak High School in Arviat, Nunavut; Hillcrest Academy in Shelburne, Nova Scotia; Sa Halli Secondary in Kamloops, British Columbia; and Soldotna Prep School in Soldotna, Alaska, USA.

Highlights of today’s event included an opening flag song from students of Kiiijick Elementary School, Treaty 3; a throat singing performance from Arviat, Nunavut; and a dignity story from Lindsay DuPré, the Indigenous Youth Engagement Coordinator at TakingITGlobal.

In Canada, Global Dignity is honoured with the support of Champions and Role Models of all stripes, including: Canada’s Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau; the Hon. Rona Ambrose, Leader of the Official Opposition; Leader of the New Democratic Party, Tom Mulcair and Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada; Anishinabe leader from Kitigan-Zibi, Caitlin Tolley; Inuit film makers Curtis Konek and Innosar Issakiark, to name a few.

Partners of Global Dignity include: TakingITGlobal, the Queen Elizabeth Centre for Global Education, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, YMCA Canada, Right To Play, the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, The Heroa Project, Kind Canada and Equal Voice.

Established in 2005, by HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant and Professor Pekka Himanen, Global Dignity is linked to the 2020 process of the World Economic Forum, in which leaders from politics, business, academia, and civil society join efforts to improve the state of the world.

Global Dignity is an independent, non-profit, non-political organization with the aim to instill a positive, inclusive and interconnected sense of value in young people that will guide them as they grow, as well as promote the idea that every human being has the universal right to lead a dignified life. Visit our website at: www.globaldignity.ca.